Thursday, September 13, 2007

Minnesota, are you listening?

Kersten writes, “In the end, we don't need Iowa's Judge Hanson to remind us that traditional marriage is under assault.

'Almost half of the country's marriage laws are or have been under attack by a small group who want to force their will on the people in the guise of constitutional adjudication,' wrote Teresa Stanton Collett, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, in a 2007 William Mitchell Law Review article.

Courts in 11 states have ordered legal recognition of same-sex unions, according to Collett -- 12, counting Iowa. In 2003, Massachusetts' high court voted 4-3 -- a mere one vote difference -- to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples. In states such as New York and Washington, high courts have upheld one-man, one-woman marriage.

The only way to prevent state courts from redefining marriage is to define it in a state's constitution. Twenty-seven states have done so, according to the Marriage Law Foundation, and 23 did so even though they had a law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”